Cultural facades get polished

08 February 2006

By Astrid Sylvia Grunert Unlike in the Snow White fairy tale, applicants for the title of European capital of culture do not have to be outstanding beauties.  They do have to identify that certain something that makes them attractive and deserving of European support. On one hand, this opens the field to all European cities – the architecturally -picturesque and the industrially-marked equally. On the other hand, there has to be more than the existence of an interesting site. A convincing marketing concept is required. For the year 2010, Germany is putting forward ten applicants, among them Essen/Ruhrgebiet and Görlitz/Zgorzelec. They could not be more different: Essen, the metropolis of the Ruhrgebiet and Görlitz/Zgorzelec, the German-Polish classical duo. The new years’ reception 2006 of the Saxony representation in Brussels was marked by the “twin-application” of Görlitz and its Polish partner Zgorzelec. In the beautiful interior of Concert Noble, Minister-Presidents and Ambassadors praised the trans-border project to the skies. The project coordinator and a Polish-German chansonnière led the audience through a captivating musical and multimedia programme. The mainly German- and Polish-speaking audience tried to remember where Görlitz was. For most Germans, Essen would have been easier to localize on a map. In the trilingual promotional film, Görlitz and Zgorzelec seemed somehow unreal. The frank comment of one of the organisers during the subsequent cocktail brought the issue back to earth: Görlitz is a nice classical city, she said, but Zgorzelec is rather unattractive. And what about the living together? Does not really exist. The cross-border aspect is nice, but in a way empty – just like the two cities whose populations are constantly decreasing due to lacking career opportunities. The producers had illustrated their promotional film with the figure of a fairy. Probably they were waiting for the EU at act as a fairy godmother and lead them out of their marginal geographic position. A friend of mine shook her head. Normally I should be in favour of Essen since I am from the Ruhrgebiet, but the trans-border idea is admittedly fascinating, even if it’s an artificial one. The concept of the capital of culture naturally has an idealistic touch. And culture is also a changing concept. A century ago who would have thought about Essen’s mines being classified as cultural heritage one day? It seems that (architectural) changes first have to exist for a certain time before they become officially marked as cultural components of our environment. But does this apply to any creation, as ugly or provisional it might be? To be consistent, one should say yes. Even the Brussels European quarter, a collective lapse of taste, will thus be given the chance to undergo a cultural revaluation. In the meantime, Essen’s mines and Görlitz’s façades reach for the stars. Astrid Grunert is author of the European Scene weblog.

 

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